


Love Among the Ruins

by NicoleAnell



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-08
Updated: 2011-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 13:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicoleAnell/pseuds/NicoleAnell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tag to "Sometimes a Great Notion".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Among the Ruins

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yetanothermask](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=yetanothermask).



"Were you even going to say goodbye?" Even with the deafening sound of the tide -- D'Anna seems to hear differently since she awoke from the cold, or everything but the ocean sounds hollow and decayed here -- she would recognize Caprica's voice anywere, the clipped and hesitating tone that doesn't suit her model. She would've recognized it underwater.

D'Anna surveys a patch of gray dirt with her hand, follows the line down toward the horizon. "Were you?" asks Caprica again. "Look at me."

"I thought we had," she answers. It's not meant to be cold, but it's meant to make her go.

"You can't honestly just _stay_ here, Three," she blurts. "After what they've all done for you."

"They didn't do it for me," D'Anna says curtly. "If they did, seems there wasn't a point either way." She turns toward her now, forcing a smile. "Oh, dear," she says when she sees Six's eyes. "You had something prepared to tell me, didn't you?"

"I don't know why you're like this."

D'Anna makes a face of forced sympathy. "Was that the beginning, Caprica? Or are you editorializing?"

Caprica starts over, her mouth only quivering a bit. "I know it was bigger than us," she says flatly. "I've tried to have perspective. When you left me, and you took Gaius with you... I realized I had misjudged things."

"And you voted to box me. Do you really want to talk about past sins now?" Caprica shakes her head, shutting her eyes. In the distance another raptor lifts off, echoing in D'Anna's ears. The heavy raiders have left the atmosphere already, her estranged sisters and brothers subtly relieved to be rid of her command after only a few hours. "You're staying with them?" D'Anna asks, motioning toward the small groups of humans still teeming through the wreckage, some aimlessly exploring the shore and others limp on the ground. It's not a judgment. She's past making those.

"Saul belongs with the Galactica," Caprica answers, as if that settles everything. "And I don't have anywhere else..."

"Ah, that's not true," D'Anna chirps in her heavy accent. "They'd take you back with open arms now, wouldn't they? Amnesty all around?"

"No," says Caprica, evenly. She trusts them, perhaps, even less than the humans, and D'Anna can relate to this -- if nothing else, humans are consistent and easier to read.

The off-color remains in the dirt are more pieces of the temple, nearly dust now, and D'Anna feels a sting of pressure in her chest and a need to scream. "I'm staying on the ground," she says firmly. "I'm staying with the dead. I'm not waiting for Cavil or anyone else."

"Suicide is a sin," Caprica begs.

The warning catches D'Anna offguard, if only because it hadn't occurred to her this was the suicidal option, any more than the alternative. A flash of anger goes through her. "To know the face of God is madness," she says. "Do you know why that is?" She steps closer, and Caprica recoils just slightly at her whisper: "Because He's only playing with us."

"That's not true."

"It's better we found out now."

"I'm pregnant," says Caprica suddenly, and D'Anna can hear in her intake of breath that it's the first time she's said the words.

"Well," D'Anna says, collecting her senses. "True love prevails." And Caprica starts to laugh until it sounds strangled and sad.

"Don't do this," she says, tears behind her fluttering eyes. She loves D'Anna somehow, still, like it's simply her function to attach herself to damage, like it's her addiction.

"I was the end of the line." The words slip out quietly. She is the only Three in the universe now; the knowledge is too much to bear alone. There's no one, she tries to say, no Cylon left who's like her.

"You think I don't know how that feels?" Caprica is bitter, wounded. "What part of it do you think I don't know?"

"It's not a curse for you," D'Anna says. The alternate answer is that she's stronger than D'Anna thought, and so much more than her. D'Anna kisses her lightly, once on the lips and again on the side of her face. She kisses the falling tear on her cheek, which Caprica flicks away with her hand a second later, uneasily, and composes herself. "You'll miss your ship home," says D'Anna, and looks away.

\----------

D'Anna lies down on the rocks when they've gone, her back curving into the jagged surface, and wonders how long she'll wait here. She'll have to eat, eventually. Or maybe not. The radiation won't affect her. Maybe when she stands again, she'll walk the world until her legs give out. She'll find some part of the city where the ruins are less stale, and it will speak to her, and tell her not to die. She will tell the bones, "Frak you." She still has a choice in this.

She never does figure how to measure time on Earth, or when projection crosses the line into madness, but it's Six wearing red who she sees more than anyone. She delivers a message from God, she claims, which is only _Forgive me_ , and D'Anna responds the same way every time.


End file.
